Wifi 6 speed on Netgear WAX214 AP

[ScarredPinguin]

Hello,

I have my Internet is 1 Gbit download and 100 Mbit upload. The main router is Mikrotik rb4011 (without wifi) and cat8 cable goes form eth 2 to Poe injector and then to Netgear WAX214 Access point.

The problem is that I'm getting slow download speeds on my computer that uses TP-Link Archer TX3000E wifi 6 PCIe card. I'm connected to 5ghz wpa3 wifi network and the speeds vary from 150 Mbit/s to 400 Mbit/s. I'm getting around 900 Mbit/s download via lan cable from mikrotik router.

 

Am I doing something wrong? I can see in my computer that the PCIe card uses wifi 6 protocol.

 

Thank you!

[Electronics Wizardy]

What phy rate is the computer connected with?

 

What is the signal strength?

 

Doesn't seem to off speed wise to me, esp for not great signal strength or some interference.

[ScarredPinguin]

This is form my computer. Link speed varies, I've seen it being 70 Mbps, now 432 Mbps. There are 3 of 4 sticks on wifi symbol on the computer.

 

Wifi AP is around 5 metres/16 feet from the PC, there is one wall behind the room where the router and AP is.

I have attached picture from my PC and from administration of the AP. RF transmission power is enabled and for some reason can not be set to disabled. Can that be a problem?

 

Thank you so much!

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, ScarredPinguin said:

This is form my computer. Link speed varies, I've seen it being 70 Mbps, now 432 Mbps. There are 3 of 4 sticks on wifi symbol on the computer.

 

Wifi AP is around 5 metres/16 feet from the PC, there is one wall behind the room where the router and AP is.

I have attached picture from my PC and from administration of the AP. RF transmission power is enabled and for some reason can not be set to disabled. Can that be a problem?

Yea it loosk like the signal strength is your issue. Id move the access point closer if you can, or try moving the anetnnas around.

 

 

[ScarredPinguin]

The link speed on my wifi 6 laptop are 1201/1201 Mbit/s when I'm next to wifi AP.

Speeds from spredtest.net says 600-650 Mbit/s download. Wifi AP doesn't support 160 MHz unfortunately

When I move to the room where my desktop PC is, download speeds drop to 320 Mbit/s so the wall/distance is definitely an issue here.

Thank you all for helping me.

 

I'm quite disappointed by the wifi access point, I thought I would get something close to gigabit when standing next to the AP, I'm on the Network alone right now and getting 600-650 Mbit/s. Should I return this AP and buy another one? Netgear has this better but still AX1800 wifi AP for 50 euros more than this one. Would buying it help? I'd like to have wifi 6 AP but there are not many. Mikrotik also has some wifi APs but none are wifi 6

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, ScarredPinguin said:

The link speed on my wifi 6 laptop are 1201/1201 Mbit/s when I'm next to wifi AP.

Speeds from spredtest.net says 600-650 Mbit/s download. Wifi AP doesn't support 160 MHz unfortunately

When I move to the room where my desktop PC is, download speeds drop to 320 Mbit/s so the wall/distance is definitely an issue here.

Thank you all for helping me.

 

I'm quite disappointed by the wifi access point, I thought I would get something close to gigabit when standing next to the AP, I'm on the Network alone right now and getting 600-650 Mbit/s. Should I return this AP and buy another one? Netgear has this better but still AX1800 wifi AP for 50 euros more than this one. Would buying it help? I'd like to have wifi 6 AP but there are not many. Mikrotik also has some wifi APs but none are wifi 6

Thats pretty expected. You have a 1200mhz unit, so about 600-800mbit is expected.

 

Its also a lower end unit, you want the higher end models for higher speeds.

 

But this seems to be a signal strength issue, not a ap issue, Id much rather have more slower APs normally

 

The 1800 doesn't seem like it would make a difference here. Id probably get a 4x4 model if you want better speeds, like the unifi wifi 6 lr

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 8/12/2021 at 6:24 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

The 1800 doesn't seem like it would make a difference here. Id probably get a 4x4 model if you want better speeds, like the unifi wifi 6 lr

Agreed, MIMO is the way to try to squeeze more out at range, 160Mhz might help but it does tend to make range issues worse rather than better so I wouldn't assume it will.

 

Problem is finding a WiFi adapter that supports more than 2x2 MIMO, have you seen any?  (though to be honest AC at 4x4 is probably better than AX at 2x2)

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Agreed, MIMO is the way to try to squeeze more out at range, 160Mhz might help but it does tend to make range issues worse rather than better so I wouldn't assume it will.

 

Problem is finding a WiFi adapter that supports more than 2x2 MIMO, have you seen any?  (though to be honest AC at 4x4 is probably better than AX at 2x2)

A lot of high end wifi aps should be able to to directional stuff with multiple antennas, so they will help a little bit even if the client isn't >2x2.

 

There is one 4x4 wifi card here https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-PCE-AC88-AC3100-802-11AC-Adapter/dp/B01H9QMOMY

 

But Id probalby get a ax210 for most uses now, ax and 6e helps a good amount.

[Alex Atkin UK]

53 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

A lot of high end wifi aps should be able to to directional stuff with multiple antennas, so they will help a little bit even if the client isn't >2x2.

 

There is one 4x4 wifi card here https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-PCE-AC88-AC3100-802-11AC-Adapter/dp/B01H9QMOMY

 

But Id probalby get a ax210 for most uses now, ax and 6e helps a good amount.

@ScarredPinguin I can hit 850Mbit on a good day to my NAS via an AX210 and Honor Router 3, in the same room.  Would not be surprised if LAN to WAN is slower as I've seen WiFi struggle to reach WAN speeds before (not on my current hardware though), even when it actually goes FASTER to the LAN itself than the WAN is.  I think the additional latency/overheads going to the Internet can bottleneck speeds.

 

I'd also argue that trying to reach Gigabit over WiFi is kinda pointless if its specifically for the Internet.  I currently have 500Mbit 5G and a LOT of websites still throttle down to under 100Mbit.  In real-world use the main benefit of Gigabit is allowing multiple clients to go fast at the same time, rather than pushing high speeds to a single client.

 

I've never found 5Ghz, especially the lower channels, very consistent for performance.  I'm really hoping 6Ghz will fix that.